Oy, what a wacky talking lizard.
BQB here with a review of Netflix’s latest kids movie.
Leo, voiced by Adam Sandler in the guise of an elderly, grumpy old Jewish man in the form of a lizard, has lived the life of a classroom terrarium pet for over seven decades. He’s lived through quite a bit of history, albeit from the confines of a glass tank in the back of a room full of snotty, bratty little kids. Teachers have come and gone, passing him down from one generation to the next. He’s even seen tank roommates come and go. He currently rooms with Squirtle, a turtle voiced by perpetually pissed off Bostonian Bill Burr.
One fateful day, Leo learns a duo of sad facts that a) his species of lizard typically lives to age 75 and b) that he is 74. He becomes horribly depressed, fearing that he has wasted his life in a tank when he could have been outside, living it up in a swamp. He hopes to escape, and when a new grumpy substitute assigns the children to take the pets home for the weekend (past teachers did this dirty work), Leo sees these dumb kids as easily bamboozled, and he should be able to bust out into the great outdoors in no time.
Ah, but alas, trouble is afoot for the best laid plans of mice, men and lizards. As it turns out, kids were always able to hear Leo speak. He just never had any time alone with them in 74 years to find that out. And his many years of observing kids and all their problems has given him tremendous insight, thus each weekend, a new kid takes him home and by the end of the weekend, Leo has given the kid a dose of free psychiatry and told him or her everything they need to know to improve their little lives.
Plentiful escape opportunities abound, but Leo wrestles with his desire to be free vs. whether he might have found his true calling in whipping all these stupid little chump kids into shape. He does want to get out into the swamp and chase bugs, yet now that all the kids have come to know and love him, he fears they’ll be heartbroken if they look into the tank one day and find him gone. Decisions, decisions. What is a lizard to do?
STATUS: Shelf-worthy. All I can say is Disney needs to get its act together because even Netflix is getting into the kids’ movie game is this one is pretty solid.
Bookshelf Battle 